US releases final Uighur detainees from Guantanamo five years after court order

31

Dec

2013

The United States moved another step closer to shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp this morning, announcing that it had finished relocating the ethnic Uighur Chinese nationals who had been detained there for around a decade. The Pentagon said that it was releasing the final three Uighur detainees to Slovakia, which has agreed to take them in. This transfer and resettlement constitutes a significant milestone in our effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagons press secretary, says in a statement. A significant milestone in our effort to close the detention facility.